Self Portrait in Silver

whole panel
sterling silver wire
126 x [[34 cm]]
2004

Curriculum Vitae XX
oil and acrylic on board
150 x 120 cm
1986-92

The words, by Tom Phillips, form a kind of self portrait in alliterative verse in the same metre as the anglo saxon poem Beowulf. The text is adapted from number XX in the series of paintings called Curriculum Vitae, here much extended. It is an attempt to list the various identities that go to make a single artistic life.

"Everyone would have their own such catalogue of masks and guises that they perceive themselves to employ, or guess they are perceived as owning. Nothing causes more astonishment than to come across a description of oneself: it provokes an even greater disbelief than those photos which others foolishly think resemble one. In this case some of these personae were adopted for a task, some are born of moments of boastful confidence, some are psychological aberrations and some just grew. The unity of the piece in which letters are tortured into cooperation hopes to reflect an overall homogeneity in the spirit of its maker. The beginning is based on the confessional Anglo- Saxon poem The Seafarer which I have been trying to translate for forty years."